A. Field of the Invention
The invention is a mounting system for a clean room ceiling, a clean room ceiling utilizing the mounting system and a method of installing a clean room ceiling utilizing the mounting system. The ceiling may be non-walkable. The ceiling of the Invention matches the appearance from inside the clean room of a more expensive walkable clean room ceiling and also presents a better opportunity for cleaning and disinfection compared to a conventional non-walkable clean room ceiling. The ceiling of the Invention provides for more flexible installation than prior art non-walkable clean room ceilings, with less opportunity for installation error and hence less opportunity for loss and waste.
B. Statement of the Related Art
Clean rooms are used to control the environment and prevent contamination of product, equipment, materials and processes in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences and technology industries. A clean room may take the form of a building-within-a-building, with a clean room envelope within a larger building envelope. The larger building protects the clean room from the elements, contains mechanical systems serving the clean room and may provide structural support to the clean room. The clean room provides a discrete space in which the operator can separately control the temperature, humidity, cleanliness and air pressure.
A non-walkable clean room ceiling is not adequately robust to support adult human beings walking on the top of the non-walkable ceiling, but is adequate to segregate the clean room from the rest of the larger building. A non-walkable clean room ceiling may require catwalks or scaffolding to allow human operators to access mechanical systems on the top of the clean room or to access the clean room structure itself. Conversely, a walkable-ceiling clean room system will support human beings walking upon the top of the ceiling. The non-walkable ceiling has the advantage of significantly reduced cost compared to a walkable ceiling.
Clean rooms may utilize ceiling panels having a composite construction, with each composite panel composed of opposing steel skins bonded to a crenelated aluminum core. For reduced weight and cost, the composite panels are constructed to be as thin as possible, consistent with the structural requirements of the ceiling. For a non-walkable clean room ceiling, the thickness of the composite panels generally is less than one inch.
Prior art non-walkable clean room ceilings are supported in a manner similar to the familiar suspended ceiling; namely, a grid of T-shaped beams hangs from the larger building structure and ceiling panels are supported at their periphery by the top of the T-shaped beams.
The prior art non-walkable clean room ceilings present disadvantages. First, the intersection of each ceiling panel and each T-shaped beam presents a raised discontinuity where biological contaminants, such as microorganisms, may find refuge and have a better chance of surviving chemical cleaners and disinfectants. Second, the bottom portion of each T-shaped beam is readily visible from inside the clean room, identifying the ceiling as a less expensive and less sophisticated non-walkable ceiling. Third, the intersection between each adjacent pair of composite panels presents two raised discontinuities corresponding to each side of the T-shaped beam, compared to the intersection of two adjacent ceiling panels of a walkable ceiling, which can present a single shallow groove.